Boyfriend of woman placed in guardianship trying to restore contact
A former Clinton Township man has been trying for months to have contact with his live-in girlfriend whose guardian has kept her isolated because of evidence he has beaten her and suffers from dementia.
Judy Tefft, 58, has been confined to nursing homes since last April when she was taken to Henry Ford Macomb Hospital by her boyfriend, Ted Scarborough, 58, after suffering a seizure on top of a previous one.
Adult Protective Services was called in to investigate after Tefft said Scarborough hit her and petitioned Macomb County Probate Court to have her put into a guardianship-conservatorship. She also was previously diagnosed with early-stage dementia induced by alcohol use, according to her guardian, attorney Terry Gilsenan.
Scarborough accuses Gilsenan, under the blessing of Macomb Probate Judge Sandra Harrison, of keeping her in effect as a prisoner against her wishes.
“I’m worried to death about her,” Scarborough said. “This is messing me up emotionally and physically. It’s taken a toll on me.”
He has garnered the support of the Center for Estate Administration Reform, a national organization, and a local anti-guardianship activist, Jody Rice-White.
“The actions of … Terrence Gilsenan to exploit Judith Tefft and Ted Scarborough through the involuntary adult guardianship of Judith are inexcusable and in violation of many state and federal statutes,” CEA Executive Director Rick Black wrote in a letter to Scarborough’s attorney.
Black told The Macomb Daily: “Ted should be allowed to have contact with her. There are a lot of people who want to see Judy and they’re being blocked.”
“I feel like they are just throwing her away by throwing her in a nursing home,” said Tammy Gallagher of Warren, a friend of Tefft. “How sad is it someone can take you away and not let you have visitors?”
Rice-White called the court’s actions “misfeasance” and “malfeasance.”
But Gilsenan said he and other officials are acting properly in keeping Tefft away from Scarborough because of proof he has beaten her multiple times. She had facial bruises when she arrived at the hospital and a neighbor can testify about Tefft’s claims of beatings, Gilsenan said.
Attorney Donald Slavin, who was Tefft’s emergency guardian ad litem, said he interviewed her at the hospital April 19, 2022, and she accused Scarborough of assaulting her while adding she fears him.
“I remember she was really afraid of him,” he said.
She said he was consenting to a guardianship-conservatorship to help evict Scarborough because he was growing marijuana and stored guns at the house.
He said she admitted she has short- and long-term memory issues mostly due to chronic alcoholism.
A report by a treating physician at the hospital indicates Tefft suffered from “recurrent seizures” as well as “conflation and persecutorial delusions,” believing “people closest to her are taking advantage of her/hurting her,” according to Slavin.
However, Slavin concluded while some of her statements may be inaccurate, her fear of Scarborough appeared real.
A long-time friend of Tefft who did not want to be named told The Macomb Daily Tefft told her “a couple of times” that Scarborough had beaten her.
“I seen bruises on her and
she would tell me,” the friend said. The assaults occurred while “drinking went on,” she said.
Scarborough pleaded guilty to domestic violence in August 2014 on allegations he beat her in June 2014 and served 56 days in the county jail, according to 41B District Court records. A charge of assault by strangulation was dismissed.
Attorney Bryan Sunisloe, who represented Scarborough, said he pleaded guilty to the domestic violence charge so he could be released on a sentence of time served.
Sunisloe added Tefft may not be the best source for accusations against Scarborough due to the effects of her long-term alcohol use.
“Unfortunately, Judy is somewhat delusional,” he said. “She may have said something that is not correct.”
She has accused Scarborough of beating her at times he “wasn’t even there,” he added.
Scarborough also was charged with felony stalking on allegations he stalked another woman in 2012 but was found not guilty by a jury following a trial in Macomb Circuit Court in Mount Clemens.
Scarborough said he
hasn’t assaulted her, and she didn’t have black eyes when he called 911 last April after she collapsed from a seizure.
The couple began living together in about 2012 after they rekindled a relationship from their youth; they had known each other as classmates attending Fitzgerald Public Schools in Warren.
Gilsenan said Scarborough has taken advantage of Tefft and other women over the years, residing with Tefft in her house on Drexel Street near Groesbeck Highway and Metropolitan Parkway that she purchased with her late husband’s insurance funds.
“We’re dealing with a professional gigolo who has been mooching off women for years and neglected Judy Tefft’s health concerns for years and drove away her two children and sister,” Gilsenan said. “We have to protect her.”
Gilsenan said he has been unable to find proof Scarborough was employed to contribute to their household while residing with Tefft, who collected about $1,100 per month in Social Security Disability and about $300 per month from her ex-husband’s pension. But Scarborough said before the COVID-19 pandemic he worked as a printer and performed
thousands of dollars in improvements at the house.
He has placed a construction lien on the property after he was evicted from the home and lost some of his property, he said, adding he recently got a job in Hazel Park and is residing in Dryden.
The home, which Tefft bought 11 years ago during the declining real estate market for $62,000, was recently sold for $180,000, Gilsenan said, adding the funds, along with Tefft’s income, will be used to pay for her care. He said the increased finances should improve Tefft’s care because it allow her to stay in a facility more catered to her needs.
Gilsenan admitted to accusations he has been moving her to different locations to keep Scarborough at bay because he and his advocates have shown up at nursing homes where she has been staying. He said Tefft’s family members could visit her but none have requested to do so.
He also admitted to Scarborough’s claim that Tefft at times has wanted contact with Scarborough but at other times did not wish to see him.
Scarborough said she was calling him regularly for months saying she wanted to go back to him until around Feb. 1, when the calls stopped.
Scarborough’s efforts to petition the court to intervene have been rejected by Harrison because he has no standing.
Harrison last November jailed Scarborough for 21 days (18 days served) for contempt of court: seven days each for contacting Tefft, lying about a letter he sent her and directing an obscenity at the judge in court.
Black, from the CEA organization, said the inability of friends of Tefft to visit her raises concerns about the guardianship-conservatorship and has told Scarborough he needs for Tefft’s family to advocate for her release.
“Isolation is a red flag for exploitation,” Black said. “Why is Judith Tefft being kept in isolation?
“I told Ted he will lose this case if you fight this alone. I said, ‘If you truly love Judith, you’re going to have to fight for her and her family is going to have to fight for her.’”
Tefft’s daughter, son and sister have had minimal contact with her in recent years, according to Scarborough and Gilsenan. Her sister and daughter live in the Detroit area, and her son lives out of state.
Gilsenan blamed Scarborough for “driving them away” from Tefft due to his behavior.
Black said this case is an example of Michigan’s poor record in transparency in regard to guardianships and conservatorships.
“The system is a mess in Michigan mostly because it is controlled by attorneys, and it has become a profit center,” Black said.
He had slight praise for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s efforts to try to monitor probate courts and attorneys but said she has been only pursuing cases of obvious wrongdoing, which he termed “low hanging fruit.” He said while he is encouraged by those efforts and Nessel’s comments about cracking down on vulnerable-adult abuse, she could be doing more.